“There are nowadays professors of philosophy, but not philosophers. Yet it is admirable to profess because it was once admirable to live. To be a philosopher is not merely to have subtle thoughts, nor even to found a school, but so to love wisdom as to live in accordance with its dictates, a life of simplicity, independence, magnanimity, and trust. It is to solve some of the problems of life, not only theoretically, but practically.” Henry David Thoreau, Walden
I bet when you think of a philosopher you imagine a very smart person who is a professor that teaches and write papers on esoteric topics that only another philosopher could understand or even care about. You, along with Thoreau, are right. Nowadays, even philosophers believe that to be a “real” philosopher is to have an academic job at a good university, go to conferences that only philosophers attend, and write papers for top tier journals that only philosophers read. With few exceptions, philosophers live intellectually cloistered lives within the confines of academia and have little to say about how to live, and even if they do, fail to practice what they preach (I’ve met more than a few). Academic philosophers, like scientists, take an objective or disinterested view of the things they study and often write in dry, plain proses to prove it, leaving the reader half asleep at the end of the first paragraph. To be sure, academic philosophers are actually “doing” philosophy (i.e. seeking truth for truth’s sake) but they have, for the most part, neglected the practical side of philosophy. The side that pertains to the art of living. The side that asks, “How can these truths help me understand my life?” The side that not only wants to understand what justice is theoretically, but how to be just practically. Philosophical inquiry should not only be used to formulate, examine and answer metaphysical, epistemological or meta ethical questions, but should also be turned around on ourselves and used to examine our own beliefs, and help us cultivate mature intellectual, emotional, and ethical lives. Ultimately, they are two sides of the same coin. To neglect one over the other is to “do” philosophy with one hand tied behind your back.
Thoreau did not pull this idea of practical philosophy out of thin air. He is pointing to a tradition in philosophy that goes back to the days of Socrates and is expressed in the lives and works of Aristotle, Epicurus, Seneca, Marcus Aurelius, Montaigne, Nietzsche, Kierkegaard, Emerson, and many more including Thoreau himself (Walden is the expression and exercise of living philosophically). Seneca, in Letter 16, articulates the practical importance philosophy in this way:
“[Philosophy] molds and constructs the soul; it orders our life, guides our conduct, shows us what we should do and what we should leave undone; it sits at the helm and directs our course as we waver amid uncertainties. Without it, no one can live fearlessly, or in peace of mind. Countless things that happen every hour call for advice; and such advice is to be sought in philosophy”
Seneca clearly sees philosophy as the art of cultivating our character. In particular it can help alleviate our everyday pains and stresses as well as guide us through the ethical difficulties we inevitably face in life. It’s ultimate goal is to bring us tranquilly and happiness. This tradition has been explored and articulated in such works as Pierre Hadot’s “What is Ancient Philosophy” and “Philosophy as a Way of Life,” Martha Nussbaum’s “The Therapy of Desire,” and Alexander Nehamas’s “The Art of Living.” It is also bubbles up in our everyday language when people talk about having a “philosophy of life.” Even though the phrase does not quite capture the nature and practice of philosophy, it does point to the idea that philosophy has something to do with living well. So this is nothing new and has played an essential role in the development of philosophy. In fact, we cannot practice philosophy without it.
Unfortunately, by neglecting the practical side of philosophy, academic philosophers have made themselves irrelevant when it comes to the practical concerns of society in general and people in particular. Socrates says that “the unexamined life is not worth living,” but academic philosophers have not much to say about how we can examine our lives and make them worth living. It’s time to integrate philosophical practice with theory again. It’s time to revive and continue the tradition of practical philosophy by using the hard won wisdom of the past, as well as discovering new ways in the present, to make our lives better.
Academic vs. Practical Philosophy by Philosophical Living is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Great Website!